


Laundry Day

by LoveThemFiercely



Series: Drabbles and Prompts [11]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Apartment Building, F/M, Laundry, Modern AU, Protectiveness, Self-Defense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 16:26:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17686949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveThemFiercely/pseuds/LoveThemFiercely
Summary: Separate laundry facilities *suck*.  Rey can take care of herself, but somebody thinks people ought to take care of each other.Small warning for an encounter with an unpleasant human being that may seem threatening.  All is well.





	Laundry Day

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr Prompt from @sushigirlali, "I can take care of myself just fine" and Reylo

The thing Rey thought she hated the most about this apartment building (and there were many) was the fact that the laundry facilities were housed in a separate building.  It meant putting on real outside clothes (at least most of the time) and hauling giant baskets (because who’d want to do this more often than necessary) between the two buildings, through an alley that smelled like things she’d rather not imagine, then fumbling with a separate key to the laundry building. 

Then there was him.  Every time she went to run her laundry, he was there, lounging against the wall, throwing a tennis ball against another wall, over and over.  He never spoke to her, or approached her. Rey’s peril sense was well developed over a lot of years in a lot of places, but he never set off her internal alarms.  He was just there. 

She’d seen him in the building enough to know that the little old ladies down the hall were perfectly comfortable with him, though, including drafting him to carry their groceries.  This lingering between the buildings was the only weird thing about him.

Laundry Man was tall, fine shoulders, looked like he might have a good face but it was hard to tell the way he shook his hair down over it all the time.  She’d gotten a glimpse once when he’d misfired the tennis ball and gone scrambling to retrieve it (the least graceful and unhurried motion she’d ever seen him make), and she understood why.  

He had a scar, a long one running across his eye and disappearing under the collar of his flannel shirt.  It didn’t bother her, but she could see that it bothered him. He had long, long legs, and the tennis ball looked like a ping-pong ball in his hands.  Rey wondered how he knew, to always be there. She supposed she did run out of clothes in a pretty predictable cycle. She frowned. She should change that.  It wasn’t safe.

Laundry man was there tonight, just the same.   Rey thought about saying something; but the duck of his head and the flick of his wrist as the tennis ball went *sprong* against the far wall did not invite conversation.  Never mind. She didn’t need any more complications, ever, in her life. Even if he did set off an entirely different and more pleasant set of alarms, on occasion. Rey told those particular bells and whistles to hush and pack themselves back into the recesses of her brain.

There was someone else using the machines.  Rey always tried to pick the weirdest times (her work schedule was certainly bizarre enough for that) on the least-used days, but she’d seen some new guy moving in earlier this week and here he was.  She ignored him and went about her business. Until he started stealing her change. He wasn’t even subtle, just grabbing quarters off the stack and popping them into the machine. 

“Excuse me.  Those are mine.  You need to bring your own laundry money.”  She planted her feet, standing between the asshole and the dryer.  He sneered at her, obviously embarrassed to be caught, and brought a finger up under her nose, clearly about to give some lame excuse.   

“I thought those were…” Rey didn’t get a chance to see whether it was a creative one.  All six feet and change of Laundry Man were between her and the asshole without any perceptible movement.  

“You need to get your hand out of her face.”  The voice was deep, and quiet, and reasonable, and scary as hell.  The tennis ball was a very strange shape at the moment, and the knuckles around it were white.  The asshole backed away muttering something under his breath that was mostly a whine, and left, half his laundry still undone.  

“Hey.”  Oh, it looked like she was talking to him after all.  The headful of shaggy hair swiveled in her direction.  It was a nice face, as it turned out, a very nice one; but she was not happy with him at the moment.   “I don’t need a hero.  I can take care of myself just fine.”  He blinked, looking confused. “Look down.”  

He did; and froze, eyes locked on the tip of the knife Rey was holding in her hand.  Just at the legal length, perfect to fit in her sleeve, steady as a rock, and absolutely razor sharp.  Held loosely in her hand, it was at a very dangerous height for him, just about at the zipper of his jeans.

He swallowed, and his hands rose into the air.  “Okay. I see that.” He was still holding the tennis ball.  “Permission to leave?” His expression was kind of a wry wince.  It was sort of cute. She was still mad, though.

Rey felt an uncalled-for smile at the corner of her mouth.  “Granted.”

His eyes darted to the baskets.  “Permission to help carry the laundry?”

She was going to laugh if she wasn’t careful.  “Denied.” She slid the knife back up into her sleeve.  “And I can wash my clothes all by myself, understand?”

“Got it.”  He slouched his way out of the laundry building.

She thought that would be the end of it.  Until the next morning; okay, maybe afternoon.  Who knew after an all-night shift at the diner. Had she pulled a double?  Rey couldn’t even remember right now. Someone was knocking at the door. No one EVER knocked at her door.  Even Finn and Rose knew better; they texted her instead, and then again when they were outside her apartment.

She groaned, looking down at herself.  Yoga pants, long-sleeved, longish T-shirt, bare feet.  Close enough. She thought about the knife for a second.  Nah. She just wouldn’t open the door if it wasn’t right. 

The fish-eye lens showed her Laundry Man.  He looked nervous, skittish as a wet cat. Rey sighed and opened the door a crack, safety chain still fastened.  “You again? What’s your name, anyway?”

He seemed surprised that she’d asked.  “Ben. I’m Ben. Listen, I wanted to apologize for yesterday.  I just didn’t like the way he was talking to you.”

“I told you, I can take care of myself.  Is that what you’ve been doing, lurking out there all this time?  Because that’s a bit odd.” Rey folded her arms across her chest and gave him her best stern look, slightly spoiled by having to look up at him.

“I…see that now.  I just, I thought people should look out for each other.  Isn’t that how it should be?” He ran a hand across the back of his head, fingers digging into his hair.

Was it?  Rey wouldn’t know.  That had not been her life experience.  She struggled to formulate an answer, and settled for glaring at him instead.  

“Okay.  Got it. No looking out for you.  Listen, though, that’s not why I’m here.   I”…he scuffed a battered sneaker into the hallway carpet.  His ears had turned red. “I actually need your help.”

Bonus points for intriguing.  “My help? With what?” What on earth could he possibly need her help to do?

He mumbled words she didn’t quite catch, ears and face getting redder by the second, something about “get rid of it” and “too many legs”.  Rey felt a laugh trying to fight its way out of her belly, and suppressed the impulse. “Okay. Let’s try again. I’m Rey. And sorry, but could you repeat that please?  You need to get rid of a what, now?”

Ben shuddered, a surprisingly delicate whole-body motion, reddish-pink blanching back to a sort of fresh concrete color, before repeating the key word just loud enough for her to hear this time.  “Spider.” Rey felt her lips curve upward in a wide smile before the laugh went ahead and escaped.

**Author's Note:**

> Rey will remove the intruder humanely using a cup and an index card, because she is intrigued by most critters and because at least one person in my house would never forgive me if it were otherwise.


End file.
